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And in reality, 2 reactors is all you can work with, because you need two pipes that output unprocessed methane, and since you can't rearrange pipes mid-production you have to have one reactor that has the sole function of transporting half a dozen molecules of methane. There's no way around it, that I can tell.

My next plan is to use control nodes to alternate the production of HF and NH3 in a 3:1 ratio, which has to be turned into NF3 and H2 in a 1:1 ratio... meaning I'll have three times more hydrogen than I can use, and I can't fuse it into anything useful. Let's hope the pipe is long enough.

Finished my first game of XCOM: Enemy Within. Mildly anticlimactic, but overall a good time. I'll definitely have to try it on classic one of these days. Not sure what to play now, XCOM had the merit of being bite-size, slow paced, and just engrossing enough to be a good distraction without becoming an addiction. That balance worked out well for fitting it in amidst a ridiculously busy year, I wonder what else I've got that would fit that bill?

The draguir standard bearer boss fight in The Witcher 2 is some pure A grade bullshit. Given that the only advantage you'd get going into it is if you happened to have specced into the swordsmanship tree (signs here) my only advantage is I can parry a bit more...which is just fantastic against a monster that can charge you and knock you down, whilst its three guards can wail on you too. Whoever designed it needs to have a character designed after them in TW3 whose corpse you must set fire to to release a curse placed on Geralt. It makes sense and you know it.

The rest of the game has been pretty great since last mention. (Oh and of course, before going into this fight I used my now-non-existent potions.)

The draguir standard bearer boss fight in The Witcher 2 is some pure A grade bullshit. Given that the only advantage you'd get going into it is if you happened to have specced into the swordsmanship tree (signs here) my only advantage is I can parry a bit more...which is just fantastic against a monster that can charge you and knock you down, whilst its three guards can wail on you too. Whoever designed it needs to have a character designed after them in TW3 whose corpse you must set fire to to release a curse placed on Geralt. It makes sense and you know it.

The rest of the game has been pretty great since last mention. (Oh and of course, before going into this fight I used my now-non-existent potions.)

Potions are good, but are you using bombs too? Bombs are outright OP. Make a ton before a tough fight and just hammer the throw button. I'd only not recommend it because it's so stupid and easy that it's kind of bad.

Well I got past that fight through half part luck and half part running around in a circle taking a hit every so often. Still a stupid fight. I get the impression though there's another draugir fight then where you do play as Geralt proper? Good, I'm fine with those fights or any other fights, it just seems like the game has really weird difficulty spikes for a single fight and then back to standard.

Yeah, the game has its share of weird difficulty spikes and no mistake. I still enjoyed it greatly, but... yeah. Igni at least starts out kind of terrible though, so it's like getting a secret thing when you put enough points into it and it's suddenly pretty good.

Far cry 3: The Rakyat are using Jason, this is pretty obvious, but i don't how the character can go that deep in his fantasy... I feel like he hasn't lived enough to make him join the cult... The fact that I am not buying Citra and Dennis' crap distance me even more from what's happening.

I just met Riley, I guess I am nearing the end. I think my final jugement will be: "I see what you tried there. It just didn't work..."
g.

I still maintain its all a dream. Jason's dream. Its like this:

Here's Jason, a not-very-likeable rich shit who, deep down, knows this is what he is. So he and his trust-fund-baby buddies/family members go away on vacation. To have "adventures" like sky diving, surfing, hiking and rock climbing. Nice, relatively safe adventures, with their instructor lead courses and safety cables and backup chutes.

And deep down...Jason knows this isn't really adventure. He craves something more. Something dangerous. He wants to be recognized. To be a hero. To do something really brave and worthwhile.

So one night he falls asleep. And he has this dream. If you really dig in - SPOILERS FOLLOW - you will notice some clues to its being all a dream, too, such as:

-Isn't it convenient that Grant dies? He's army trained, the best qualified to rescue the group. And he's eliminated right away. After stopping out in the open to examine a map. No way he makes that mistake. Not in his own dream, anyway.

-The pirates all wear nifty pirate-themed/branded clothing or colors. All of it handily red. So they don't blend in. No camoflauge, nothing. Meanwhile, allies all conveniently wear blue. These are the common bad/good guy colors in almost every online game ever made.

-The crashed plane "mission." The plane crashed 10 years ago. And the woman who says she saw it flyin overhead, Alduin style? There is no woman living there, according to the guy in the wrecked plane. And he says it, as if that's been true a long time now.

-The situation as a whole. These people have their own villages. They have all the weapons. Weapons they sell - not give, but sell, video game style - to Jason. They tell them they need his help, then SELL him the tools to help them? Riiiiiight.

-The tattoos. This one doesn't even really need explaining.

I truly believe its all the misguided dream of a not very likable, spoiled rich kid who spent a lot of time playing paintball and online games, who has too much free time and a deep, subconscious craving for adventure and to be something more, someone relevant. To be respected and needed.

All of which makes the plot line far more tolerable to me personally. Which is maybe why I am enjoying the game.

Well, that, and the easier start mod. All skills unlocked and awarded. All crafting done and crafted items owned. All weapons available for purchase. Playing it this way feels more like an open world Rambo game to be honest. You can adapt on the fly to situations, choosing the strategy that best fits the moment, as opposed to the one whose skills you have managed to unlock.

If ever there was a game where the fun was actually hampered by MMO style crafting and Skyrim-style skill unlocks - besides Skyrim itself, of course - its Far Cry 3.

In starting up The Witcher 2: The Witcherer I'm reminded that I easily get frustrated by not having sequels, that not only follow directly on from the original but use a save file to continue on from that ending, to recognise you actually know how to play the game in a contextual way. That I have to level up basic skills is absolutely ridiculous when you acknowledge that you've already spent some 50 or however many hours with Geralt and post amnesia knows how to handle a damn sword and parry. Granted there's plenty of mechanical reasons, but it's just irksome.

Or perhaps I say this all as someone who started the combat and got their head handed to them on a plate over and over. I think I've just about got it now. I like the majority of changes that I've seen thus far, especially some of the spells being changed from "Actually shit" to "Properly useful", which on the second hardest difficulty is rather welcome (not so hot on permadeath and a continuous save slot in a game like this, although it being there is obviously good). Other than the technical aspects of the gameplay being changed, I think the first thing I noticed on starting the game is just had god damn gorgeous it is to look at, and I'm not even running it on the highest it can be (so SephKing needn't be afraid that his throne is being challenged).

It's fun though so far and pretty hilarious going from the trying-too-hard clichéd material of Dust to this where the voice-over is done well with dialogue that is appropriate and engaging. That the plot is curious too helps, although like TW1, I'm struggling to remember all the names of people and places mentioned, rolled off as they are as if you're actually in that universe and know what all these things are. Still, early days, but I'm optimistic for the rest.

As a quick aside, a note about Zelda: A Link Between Worlds on the 3DS, which I've had since mid-December but been delaying in finishing because I didn't want to as I was having so much fun with it. Anyhow, I finished it last night and can safely say it's the best game I've played in a few years. It may not be the most challenging, or the most good-looking, but as a product designed to entertain, it did that and then some. Absolutely wonderful game that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to anyone who had a 3DS/XL/2DS (and I'd say was even a system seller in its own right).

This leads me to wonder how in the world they will manage skill unlocks/upgrades in TW3. In the firs game, it was recovering the memories. Finding and recalling the signs and how to use them. In TW2, they loosely excused this crap by having you increase the power of signs already available.

But the third game? Well...here's to hoping they just do away with skills and upgrades, and let me play an open world action game with a story, choices and consequences. After having those things removed from Far Cry 3 and having the freedom thereby to simply adapt to situations without worrying over which skills I have unlocked, I have to say, I am not eager to more XP/Perk/Level up systems in games.

I didn't get all that far last time around - let's see where I strand this time, eh?

What else am I playing? Dark souls, finally. Bought it in the Xmas sale, and I'm having a blast. Mostly. My kids also have a blast, suggesting novel ways for my char to die. As if I needed any help with that. This weekend, the Gaping Dragon dies!

The entire Eternal Battle sequence can go [very censored], who on earth thought that that was well balanced? What a [extremely censored]. Hilariously, the boss took 4 attempts. The first three because it auto-saved me as he was swinging down on me and followed it up with a kill, the fourth attempt being as such:

Beautiful game, great mechanics, quality soundtrack but in terms of the journey I'd say it reminds me a bit of FTL in that you need to learn the ropes a bit before it all clicks (though the randomness is thankfully confined to the combat maps).

Much like Dark Souls the game has a singular currency (in this case renown) which you acquire as the result of combat victories as well as the occasionally canny judgement call during the games story line. You can spend renown in one of two ways. Firstly to buy levels for your individual heroes once they have hit a certain number of kills, and secondly you can spend it in the occasional town market you stumble across to buy both food supplies for you caravans as well the odd trinket that a hero can wear to boost their stats/enhance their abilities (though you do find these/can win them in exceptional combat victories).

All well and good, but for the fact that renown is not easily earned until you know what you're doing (and even then it's a finite amount) and all too often you'll find yourself ploughing points into characters who aren't necessarily going to stick the course and will invariably end up buggering off at some point which can be a tad frustrating to say the least in terms of investment. My advice would be to play the game on easy initially to get a feel for the mechanics and the way the story-line unfolds and then once you're happy with that then try normal. Much like FTL the conclusion favours you better if you're coming loaded for bear rather than happy go lucky.

Highly recommended regardless. Very much looking forward to the the next title in the series.

Still playing Far Cry 2. I've ignored the story missions so far, I'm just doing missions for the arms trader and hitting targets of opportunity. Someone here suggested switching weapon sets every now and again, to avoid making the game to easy by using sniper rifles. It makes the game a lot more challenging, and forces you to use the tools at your disposal instead of sniping everybody down and moving in to take the loot.

Still playing Far Cry 2. I've ignored the story missions so far, I'm just doing missions for the arms trader and hitting targets of opportunity. Someone here suggested switching weapon sets every now and again, to avoid making the game to easy by using sniper rifles. It makes the game a lot more challenging, and forces you to use the tools at your disposal instead of sniping everybody down and moving in to take the loot.

That was me, and I recommend it to all if you haven't done it. Every weapon turns a combat encounter into a different scenario more or less, if you can believe it. It's that well designed. A fight with an AK47 is very different to a fight with an ARMS for example. Not just in how it plays out, or in terms of challenge, but there is pay-off even in just how it *feels* as well. And there are few more thrilling moments I've had in gaming than feeling I had equipped properly for a mission, only to discover I got it wrong and either need to work it out as I go along or alternatively just put my faith in unthinking violence and adrenaline. The Far Cry 2 equivalent of Han Solo in A New Hope running at the stormtroopers sort of thing. Just lobbing grenades and making shit explode to either draw their fire or create a 1 in 50 chance of chain reaction that will somehow kill the majority.

That was me, and I recommend it to all if you haven't done it. Every weapon turns a combat encounter into a different scenario more or less, if you can believe it. It's that well designed. A fight with an AK47 is very different to a fight with an ARMS for example. Not just in how it plays out, or in terms of challenge, but there is pay-off even in just how it *feels* as well. And there are few more thrilling moments I've had in gaming than feeling I had equipped properly for a mission, only to discover I got it wrong and either need to work it out as I go along or alternatively just put my faith in unthinking violence and adrenaline. The Far Cry 2 equivalent of Han Solo in A New Hope running at the stormtroopers sort of thing. Just lobbing grenades and making shit explode to either draw their fire or create a 1 in 50 chance of chain reaction that will somehow kill the majority.

Exactly, and I thank you again for the suggestion. Right now I'm carrying IED's, and I'm having a blast (pun certainly intended) sneaking around enemy camps, placing explosives, and then trying to blow them all up with a single press of the left mouse button.

Played the first and second level of Eldritch. Pretty fun game. I wonder what the useless items are for? Because we all know that when a game like this tells you that an item appears to be useless, it is almost certainly very important.